"At this point I should quit cycling because you really can't trust the riders," Vini Fantini's team director Luca Scinto said from the Italian cycling federation in Rome, where he was attending a hearing on the Di Luca case. "If I had [Santambrogio] within my hands now I would hit him. At this point, we're all finished."

The UCI said it had suspended the 28-year-old Santambrogio and asked the Italian cycling federation to prosecute a disciplinary case. He faces being stripped of his victory in the tough and mountainous stage 14 and his ninth place overall.

"Evidently some cyclists haven't understood and still hope to ruin things at the cost of everyone else," Italian cycling's federation president, Renato Di Rocco, said. "It happened to be that today we were having hearings on the Di Luca case, so the news of his team-mate will prompt us to widen and deepen our inquiry."

Di Rocco added that the federation may also sue for damages to protect the image of the Italian cycling movement.

The UCI said Santambrogio tested positive in a urine sample given on 4 May, the first stage of the three-week race.

On 18 May, he rode through treacherous weather conditions into Bardonecchia to beat the eventual overall winner Vicenzo Nibali for the stage win. It was the biggest success of Santambrogio's career.

Two days before Nibali completed his victory, the 2007 Giro winner Di Luca was also announced to have tested positive for EPO in a sample given days before the race. Di Luca was pulled from the race and fired by the Vini Fantini team. The 37-year-old rider faces a lifetime ban for a third offence.

A third doping case at the Giro involved the French rider Sylvain Georges. The 28-year-old AG2R La Mondiale rider tested positive for the banned stimulant Heptaminol in a urine sample after the seventh stage.